Non-Jats may dump Hooda
Chandigarh, September 25
The byelection on September 28 for the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat has not left much scope for speculation with all pundits predicting a thumping win for the Congress nominee.

Gohana episode fails to cast shadow on poll campaign
Rohtak, September 25
The Gohana episode has failed to cast its shadow on the Rohtak Lok Sabha byelection, much to the chagrin of opponents of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda whose son, Deepender Singh, is making his political debut from here.

Power consumers benefit from bill waiver scheme
Panchkula, September 25
The electricity bill waiver scheme announced by the Hooda government in June this year, has been able to resolve the long- standing contentious issue of unpaid electricity bills by farmers of Haryana. Over 60 per cent of defaulting farmers have availed the scheme.

Former Media Adviser gets 2-yr imprisonment
Sonepat, September 25
The District and Sessions Judge, Mr Chander Bhan Jaglan, yesterday sentenced Rajiv Jain, former press adviser to then Chief Minister Bansi Lal, to two years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 on the charge of having more income and property beyond his sources of income.

Nine houses collapse, two injured
Karnal, September 25
Two persons Shrief Ali, and his 10-year-old son were injured when their house collapsed at Mundagari village. Villagers extricated them from the debris of the house and admitted them to a private hospital.

CBI remand for IOC official
Ambala, September 25
Senior terminal manager of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Ambala Cantonment Sunil Kumar
Bisht, who was arrested by the CBI yesterday for allegedly taking a bribe from a tanker owner, was remanded in CBI custody for two days here today.

Chandigarh, September 25
The byelection on September 28 for the Rohtak Lok Sabha seat has not left much scope for speculation with all pundits predicting a thumping win for the Congress nominee.

But a victory alone may not satisfy the Congress Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, whose son, Deepender, is the party candidate from Rohtak. The Congressmen are worried about the BJP candidate, Capt Abhimanyu, increasing his share of the non-Jat votes in the constituency. If the fear turns out to be a reality, it will not augur well for the Congress party in future.

Traditionally, the non-Jats of Haryana have been voters of the Congress. However, under the present circumstances, one cannot rule out the possibility of larger section of non-Jats voting for the BJP than what the party normally manages to get from them. Mr Hooda, himself a Jat, is the third successive Chief Minister in the state hailing from that community. Even though Mr Hooda does not have the image of his predecessor, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, the non-Jat voters may still feel tempted to side with the BJP to avenge the Congress' decision to choose a Jat leader as the Chief Minister.

The Congress, with Mr Hooda as the Chief Minister, is rapidly gaining support among the Jats and this has the inevitable fallout on the INLD in the form of weakening of its support base. This is expected to be reflected in the performance of the INLD candidate in the byelection. The situation has also created an opportunity for the BJP, the minnows of Haryana politics, to expand its base among the non-Jats.

The Dalits, who are considered a different category than the non-Jats in the political vocabulary of Haryana, have strong antipathy toward the BJP and generally they are considered vote bank of the Congress. Despite the Gohana incident, it will come as a surprise if the Dalits switch their allegiance to any of the Opposition parties in the Rohtak bypoll.

However, the city based non-Jats, who have voted overwhelmingly for Mr Hooda in four Lok Sabha elections that the Chief Minister had won from Rohtak, could deliver him a blow in case there is a perceptible shift in their support to the BJP at the cost of the Congress. Understandably, Mr Hooda and his associates are tirelessly campaigning in the urban areas of the parliamentary constituency.

The BJP, which too has put up a Jat candidate in Rohtak, is, however, not trying to pose as a champion of non-Jats fearing that it can frustrate its candidate's effort to woo a section of the INLD supporters. But in case Capt Abhimanyu manages increase his share of the urban votes, it will certainly influence the party's politics in Haryana in future.

Rohtak, September 25
The Gohana episode has failed to cast its shadow on the Rohtak Lok Sabha byelection, much to the chagrin of opponents of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda whose son, Deepender Singh, is making his political debut from here.

About 50 houses, belonging to Dalits, were set on fire by a frenzied mob, dominated by Jats, at Gohana, about 30 km from here, on August 31 following the murder of a youth belonging to their community, allegedly by certain Dalit youths. The incident had provoked widespread protests by Dalits in Haryana and in certain parts of Punjab.

Certain political analysts had predicted that the incident would cost the Congress heavy in the Rohtak byelection. However, the Gohana incident is no issue with the Dalits here. Many Dalit leaders from all over the state have been camping here to campaign for Deepender.

The Dalit leaders, including a former Union Minister, Mr Chand Ram, who commands respect among the Dalits, Mr Karamvir Singh, president of the Confederation of the SC, ST and BC organisations; and Secretary-General of the Haryana Balmiki Sabha, Mr
M.L. Sarwan, said here today that they were supporting the Congress because during the INLD rule in the state, several incidents of atrocities against Dalits, like that in Dulina, in which five lives were lost, took place. However, no action was taken against erring officials. In Gohana, the Hooda government took immediate action against the officials, though there was only a loss of property.

They said the Congress was the only party which included several demands of the Dalits in its manifesto during the last Assembly elections. They were confident that after the Rohtak byelection, the state government would implement the promises made by the party to the Dalits.

Another Balmiki leader, Mr Banta Ram, who was the INLD MLA from Radaur, has been camping here for the past 10 days along with a team of 100 students of Kurukshetra University. He is campaigning in various Dalit bastis in favour of the Congress.

More than the voter, weather gods are upsetting plans of the political parties. Unusually heavy rain in the past two days forced the INLD to cancel its rally today, which the party had planned not only to celebrate the 92nd birth anniversary of late Deputy Prime Minister, Devi Lal but also to revive its sunken political fortunes in the state. Part of its game was upset by the Election Commission, which had issued directions that if the party flags and banners were displayed in the rally, its expenses would be included in the account of the party candidate, Mr Balwan Singh
Sohag. The INLD decided to hold the rally under the banner of the Devi Lal Memorial Trust.

The INLD plans were completely ruined by rain. The BJP, however, is going ahead with its plan to hold a rally in the town tomorrow, the last day of campaigning. Its rally would be addressed among others by Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Venkaiah Naidu and Ms Sushma Swaraj, who will campaign for Capt
Abhimanyu, who had finished second in the 2004 Lok Sabha election.

Though the Congress has cancelled its tomorrow’s rally, ostensibly to avoid clash with BJP workers, it is confident of its victory. The general secretary of the Haryana Youth Congress, Mr Lakhwinder Singh Lakha, claimed that in Rohtak the BJP and the INLD were competing with each other for the second and third places.

Mr Hooda, who paid a surprise visit to the party office this evening, urged his supporters to exercise utmost restraint on the polling day and should not allow anyone to recreate the infamous “Meham mayhem” of the 1990s in 2005.

Panchkula, September 25
The electricity bill waiver scheme announced by the Hooda government in June this year, has been able to resolve the long- standing contentious issue of unpaid electricity bills by farmers of Haryana. Over 60 per cent of defaulting farmers have availed the scheme.

A meeting to review the progress of the waiver scheme was held last week. It was found that over 59 per cent of agricultural consumers and 53 per cent of domestic consumers of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and over 62 per cent of consumers (rural domestic and agriculture) of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) have availed themselves of the scheme, and have begun paying their bills.

Interestingly, the scheme has met with an astounding response in Bhiwani and Jind districts, where 90 per cent of the consumers were not paying their power dues. In fact, the agitation for free power had started in Bhiwani district in 1992, and parts of Jind district had witnessed violent agitations three years ago. The highest percentage of progress under this scheme has been recorded in Bhiwani, where 90 per cent of the defaulters have started paying their dues. In Jind, 91. 34 per cent of agriculture consumers and 58. 71 per cent of rural domestic consumers have utilised this scheme.

Rohtak and Sonepat are the only districts where the response to the scheme is less than 45 per cent in rural domestic sector. Even agricultural consumers in Rohtak and Sonepat is the lowest in the state (at 52. 92 and 59. 02 per cent respectively). More than 80 per cent of agriculture consumers in all other districts have availed themselves of the scheme.

The Hooda government in Haryana had waived off a whopping Rs 1600 crore outstanding power arrears of farmers and other rural domestic consumers in June this year. Under this scheme, arrears of only those consumers in rural sector are waived off, who pay the future bills regularly. To ensure this, the government decided that 10 per cent of the arrears would be written off with the payment of each of the next 10 bills on a two-month cycle. If a consumer pays regularly and “uninterruptedly”, his electricity dues for 20 months, his entire arrears would be paid off.

As a reward to those rural sector consumers who paid their bills regularly, the government decided to give them 5 per cent rebate on their dues for the next 20 months. This decision has been obviously taken to respect the sentiments of the farming community of those districts which constitute the “tubewell belt” along the G.T. Road. Residents of Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal and Kurukshetra never agitated for free power, but demanded “quality and adequate” power.

Sonepat, September 25
The District and Sessions Judge, Mr Chander Bhan Jaglan, yesterday sentenced Rajiv Jain, former press adviser to then Chief Minister Bansi Lal, to two years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 on the charge of having more income and property beyond his sources of income.

Mr Jaglan released him on bail to enable him to file the appeal in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the judgement, after the payment of the amount of the fine.

Mr Jaglan allowed Rajiv Jain to file the appeal within 30 days after the pronouncement of the judgement in the case.

According to the prosecution, Flying Squad of the Chief Minister had declared the shops of Rajiv Jain in the Kundli area as illegal during the regime of Chautala government. The shops were demolished later by the government, when Rajiv Jain failed to prove that the shops had been built by his known source of income. A case was registered against him.

Karnal, September 25
Two persons Shrief Ali, and his 10-year-old son were injured when their house collapsed at Mundagari village. Villagers extricated them from the debris of the house and admitted them to a private hospital.

Apart from Shrief Ali’s house, eight other houses were reportedly collapsed in the same village and Dera Chiklighar area in Gharuanda last night during rain. However, no one injured in other incidents of collapse.

Ambala, September 25
Senior terminal manager of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Ambala Cantonment Sunil Kumar Bisht, who was arrested by the CBI yesterday for allegedly taking a bribe from a tanker owner, was remanded in CBI custody for two days here today.

The CBI produced Bisht at the residence of the Special Magistrate, Mr Y.S. Rathore, this evening and requested him to grant CBI remand to the officer.

A team of the CBI had conducted a raid on the office and residence of Bisht yesterday on a complaint from the tanker owner, who wanted to deploy two tankers with the IOC.